The Conversation -- May 23, 2025
David Fahrenthold, et al., of the New York Times: “The invitees for ... [Donald] Trump’s private dinner for customers of his cryptocurrency business on Thursday included a Chinese billionaire fighting a lawsuit from U.S. regulators, a lawyer for Justice Clarence Thomas and a former basketball star, according to a guest list obtained by The New York Times and social media posts. The dinner, at which Mr. Trump gave remarks, was an extraordinary moment in which the president leveraged his position to make money — for his crypto business and for his Virginia golf club, which hosted the event.... The following [people] were among those who were invited to the festivities.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I have bad news for the influence-seekers. They have paid only the entrance fee. To get what they want, more is required. Dana Milbank (linked below) provides one example: “Vietnam is in talks with the Trump Organization to build a new Trump Tower in Ho Chi Minh City, Reuters reported — a transparent attempt to buy Trump’s favor while it tries to persuade him to drop tariffs he imposed against the country. Vietnam just approved a $1.5 billion golf project by the Trump Organization, and has offered favorable terms to Musk’s Starlink internet service.”
Marie: Dana Milbank of the Washington Post shares my feelings about Trump's behavior: “This is just embarrassing — maybe not for our president, who seems incapable of such a sentiment, but for the rest of us. Everywhere I looked this week, I cringed for my country.” Besides ambushing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with racist lies & his solicitation for Qatar Force One (which he pretended was a surprise gift), there were other Trumpian embarrassments. For instance, “Asked this week for his thoughts on the first American pope, Trump turned it into a celebration of himself. The pope’s brother 'is a major MAGA fan,' Trump said. 'He’s got MAGA and he’s got Trump, and I look forward to getting him to the White House.'... To be sure, 'embarrassing' isn’t the only adjective that comes to mind. There’s also 'lawless.'” This is a gift link.
Ellen Nakashima & Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: “Scores of staffers at the White House National Security Council were abruptly dismissed on Friday, as the Trump administration moved to dramatically downsize the coordinating body.... The staff sent home included both career officials who were detailed to the NSC and some political appointees.... The cuts were made under ... Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, Marco Rubio, who also is serving as secretary of state.... Most NSC staffers are detailed to the White House from other parts of the federal government and were expected to go back to their home agencies, including the State Department, Pentagon and intelligence agencies, said people familiar with the shake-up.”
Mark Berman of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Friday struck down ... Donald Trump’s executive order sanctioning the law firm Jenner & Block, the second time a court has struck down one of Trump’s efforts to punish a firm. U.S. District Judge John D. Bates wrote that Trump’s order was unconstitutional, saying the president was trying 'to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers.'... Trump has targeted firms with ties to his perceived political opponents or that have challenged his policies and actions, highlighting some of these people by name in his orders.”
Joe Heim of the Washington Post: “More than three years after its installation was approved by Congress, a plaque honoring law enforcement personnel for defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is instead sitting in a Capitol basement utility room surrounded by tools and maintenance equipment. The cast bronze memorial to the officers, which declares that 'their heroism will never be forgotten,' was required by law to be installed by March 2023 near the west front of the building.... At a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing last month, Architect of the Capitol Thomas E. Austin said that modifications on the House side of the Capitol are directed by the office of the speaker and that he had not received instructions to install the plaque.... 'The reason why the law hasn’t been complied with and a plaque hasn’t been erected is because Republicans, directed by their puppet master Donald Trump, have been told try to erase January 6 as if it has never happened,' House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) said in a news conference last week.”
Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "I'm not so sure that Noem, who has been neck-deep in [the] debate about basic human rights for months, is as dumb as she seemed in that moment [when she got the definition of 'habeas corpus' ass-backwards].... Whether Noem comes by her confusion honestly or she was just play-acting, she's there to play the role of the proud MAGA bimbo, in the grand tradition of figures like Sarah Palin.... She's contemptuous of people who actually know what they're talking about, especially if those facts-laden human beings are fellow women.... It's in reality TV where the [traditional, unthreatening] bimbo morphed from the sweet-but-stupid image portrayed by [Marilyn] Monroe to the vindictive trophy wife [-- 'Real Housewives' --] who takes out her pointless grievances by throwing glasses of wine.... The vision of the wine-throwing real housewife is the stereotype that Noem has shaped herself around, pairing her expensive clothes and plastic surgery with displays of breathtaking sadism, all performed as if she is literally too stupid to know better."
Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: “Harvard University sued the Trump administration on Friday, less than 24 hours after the Department of Homeland Security said it would block international students from attending the nation’s oldest university and one of its most prestigious. The administration action, and Harvard’s response, signified a dramatic escalation of the battle between the administration and Harvard. And the university’s forceful and almost immediate response served as evidence that stopping the flow of international students to Harvard, which draws some of the world’s top scholars, would destabilize Harvard’s very existence. In a letter to the Harvard community delivered Friday morning, Dr. Alan M. Garber, Harvard’s president, wrote, 'We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action,' adding that it 'imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams.'” The NBC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ The NYT story has been updated: “Later Friday morning, at the university’s request, a federal judge in Boston moved swiftly to block implementation of the federal government’s order. The judge, Allison D. Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order against the federal edict, agreeing that Harvard had shown that its implementation would cause 'immediate and irreparable injury' to the university.” The Harvard Crimson story is here. ~~~
~~~ Oh, Dear. We Are Not Amused. Charlotte Van Campenhout of Reuters: “Princess Elisabeth, the 23-year-old future queen of Belgium, has just completed her first year at Harvard University but the ban imposed by ... Donald Trump's administration on foreign students studying there could jeopardise her continued studies.... '... The impact of (the Trump administration's) decision will only become clearer in the coming days/weeks. We are currently investigating the situation,' the Belgian Royal Palace's spokesperson Lore Vandoorne said."
“From the Idiot-King Dept.” Karl Bode of TechDirt: “Last week we noted how Trump illegally declared he was killing the $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act. The law, passed as part of the infrastructure bill, was slated to bring millions in new broadband grants and digital literacy tools to Americans of all kinds long stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide. The bill helped everybody (including Trump-supporting rural veterans), but because Trump’s team assumed that the word equity meant 'exclusively help minorities,' the program has become the latest victim of our mad, incoherent, con man king and his army of mindless earlobe nibblers. It hasn’t taken long for the decision to have ripple effects in the real world. South Dakota, for example, says it’s cancelling $5 million in broadband investment because of the uncertain future of the grants that were going to be funding the plan[.]” Thanks to RAS for the link.
Flippity-Doo-Dah. Jacob Weindling of Splinter: "... New York’s State Senate District 22 produced a margin [in a special election] that defies all conventional political logic and wisdom. Trump won this south Brooklyn district 77 percent to 22 percent in November, then Democrat Sam Sutton won his election this week by a margin of 35 points — a gobsmacking 90 percent swing from how this district voted in the presidential election just a little over six months ago.... [This] should come with the caveat that ever since 2017, special elections have favored Democrats...." Thanks to RAS for the link.
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An “Historic Corruption of the Presidency.” David Yaffe-Bellany & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: Donald “Trump gathered Thursday evening at his Virginia golf club with the highest-paying customers of his personal cryptocurrency, promising that he would promote the crypto industry from the White House as protesters outside condemned the event as a historic corruption of the presidency. The gala dinner held at the Trump National Golf Club in suburban Washington, where Mr. Trump flew from the White House on a military helicopter, turned into an extraordinary spectacle as hundreds of guests arrived, many having flown to the United States from overseas. At the club’s entrance, the guests were greeted by dozens of protesters chanting 'shame, shame, shame.'... Several of the dinner guests, in interviews with The New York Times, said that they attended the event with the explicit intent of influencing Mr. Trump and U.S. financial regulations....
“Mr. Trump and his business partners organized the dinner to promote sales of his $TRUMP cryptocurrency, a memecoin launched just days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. A memecoin is a type of digital currency tied to an online joke or mascot; it typically has no function beyond speculation. But Mr. Trump’s coins have become a vehicle for investors, including many foreigners, to funnel money to his family.... The start of Mr. Trump’s second term has been punctuated with more than a dozen of these lucrative transactions for his family and partners: real estate deals from Qatar to Serbia that involve foreign governments, a new banklike crypto venture that has pulled in $2 billion from the government of the United Arab Emirates, a golf tournament at his Miami club sponsored by a Saudi-funded venture. Mr. Trump is estimated to have added billions to his personal fortune, at least on paper, since the start of his new term, much of it through crypto.” The Independent's report, which concentrates on the protesters, is here. ~~~
~~~ It’s absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency. -- Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, Thursday
Mr. Trump spoke [at the crypto-dinner] from a lectern adorned with the presidential seal and with American flags arrayed behind him. -- Yaffe-Bellany & Lipton report linked above ~~~
~~~ Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “On Wednesday, a dangerous joke was told in the Oval Office. The South African president [Cyril Ramaphosa] turned to the American president and said: 'I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.' There was a lot packed into this one little aperçu. Nothing has so succinctly summed up the way the rest of the world feels it must now approach America as these 10 words.... The context was lost on no one. Earlier that day, the U.S. government had, under ... [Donald] Trump’s directive, finally and officially accepted [a] free jumbo jet from Qatar.... 'I wish you did' have a plane to offer up, [Mr. Trump] said.... 'I’d take it. If your country offered the U.S. Air Force a plane, I would take it.'” ~~~
~~~ Gary Legum of Wonkette, with a little help from his friends, speculates on the likely source of Trump's fake video "proof" of rampant white genocide in South Africa: "This video was aerial footage of a long procession of vehicles driving on a road lined with thousands of white crosses. Trump claimed each cross represented a murdered white farmer.... It was bullshit, of course.... The video appears to have been from the protest of the murder of one couple, Glen and Vida Rafferty, who were killed during a botched robbery. They were not targeted because they are white.... [The video] was apparently shared most widely on X by an account with the handle @twatterbaas. The @twatterbaas account is apparently known for showing all sorts of racist material.... [twatterbaas has 163K followers but] only two subscribers. One of those subscribers is Elon Musk.... Another source of President White Genocide’s presentation in the Oval Office appears to be American Thinker, a cut-rate wingnut blog that has been pushing paranoid and racist gibberish for many years." Do read on. ~~~
~~~ Marie: It is impossible to exaggerate how embarrassing it is for the POTUS* to ambush a foreign leader with fake video and photos of fake atrocities which the POTUS* falsely claims are going on in the leader's country. To the best of my recollection, past real presidents -- even past real Republican presidents -- never did such a thing.
Trader Don Threatens Europe, Apple, U.S. Consumers. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: “... Donald Trump on Friday said he is 'recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union' after complaining that trade negotiations have stalled. The steep new import duties would start on June 1, Trump wrote on Truth Social. The EU 'has been very difficult to deal with,' Trump wrote. “Our discussions with them are going nowhere!' Trump’s announcement came less than 30 minutes after he threatened to impose a tariff of at least 25% on Apple if the company does not start manufacturing iPhones in the United States. U.S. stock futures sank immediately following the posts, which showed the Republican president once again wielding the threat of massive import taxes in response to economic activity he disfavors. European stock markets fell 2%.”
Michael Schmidt & Michael Bender of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, taking aim at a crucial funding source for the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college in a major escalation in the administration’s efforts to pressure the elite school to fall in line with the president’s agenda. The administration notified Harvard about the decision after a back-and-forth in recent days over the legality of a sprawling records request as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation.... The latest move is likely to prompt a second legal challenge from Harvard....” (Also linked yesterday.) The Guardian's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, et al., of the Washington Post: “Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem ordered the agency to terminate Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, which allows U.S. universities to admit international students, for allegedly allowing 'anti-American, pro-terrorist' foreigners 'to harass and physically assault individuals … and obstruct its once-venerable learning environment.' The secretary also accused the university of working with the Chinese Communist Party by hosting and training members of its paramilitary group. The decision means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students, and existing international students at Harvard must transfer or lose their legal status, Noem said.” MB: This is pure harassment. Not only that, Kristi Noem should be begging Harvard to let her audit a Constitutional law class instead of badgering the university. See related story by Chris Cameron of the NYT, linked below. ~~~
~~~ Noem Threatens All U.S. Universities. Sareen Habeshian of Axios: "Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warned universities on Thursday to 'get your act together' after halting Harvard's program to enroll international students.... 'This should be a warning to every other university to get your act together,' Noem said on Fox News on Thursday." ~~~
~~~ Robert Reich on Substack: “This could affect more than a quarter of Harvard’s student body. Noem said she did this because of the university’s 'failure to comply with simple reporting requirements.' Rubbish. There was nothing simple about the trove of information Noem demanded from Harvard — including the coursework of every international student and information on any student visa holder who had been involved in 'illegal' activity — information beyond what Harvard is legally allowed to share with the government. We are in deep authoritarian fascist territory, friends. Trump is escalating his war against American higher education and against the rest of the world.” ~~~
~~~ Steven Pinker in a New York Times op-ed: “... the invective now being aimed at Harvard has become unhinged.... [Donald Trump has said] that Harvard is 'an Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institution,; a 'Liberal mess' and a 'threat to Democracy,' which has been 'hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and “birdbrains” who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called future leaders.'... Mr. Trump’s strangling of [scientific grants] will harm Jews more than any president in my lifetime. Many practicing and aspiring scientists are Jewish.... The concern for Jews is patently disingenuous, given Mr. Trump’s sympathy for Holocaust deniers and Hitler fans.” This is a long essay on what's wrong with Harvard and ways to fix it. Trump's approach is not one of Pinker's prescriptions.
Francesca Regalado of the New York Times: “Columbia University violated civil rights law by 'acting with deliberate indifference' toward harassment against Jewish students, the Health and Human Services Department said Thursday night, the Trump administration’s latest accusation of antisemitism against the school. No new action against Columbia, one of the nation’s most prominent universities, was included in Thursday’s announcement. The finding of a civil rights violation often precedes consequences. In Columbia’s case, the administration has already suspended more than $400 million in grants and contracts. It was not immediately clear whether the administration would seek further penalties.” MB: Nothing said about the deliberate malice and harassment the Trump administration has showered on universities, especially the ivies.
Dana Goldstein of the New York Times: “The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it was investigating the admissions system at an elite public high school in Fairfax County, Va., which has been accused of discriminating against Asian American students to favor other racial groups. The administration has repeatedly argued that the Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action in college admissions should also apply to K-12 education. But the court has never made such a statement, and it chose last year to allow the high school’s admissions program to stand. The school, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, is considered one of the best in the country. In 2020, the Fairfax County School Board overhauled the admissions process for Thomas Jefferson in an effort to diversify the majority-Asian student body. It did away with a high-stakes admissions exam and instituted a policy to reserve seats for top students from each area middle school. Applicants must also submit grades and essays. Under the new admissions process, evaluators do not know the names or races of applicants. But they do consider whether candidates overcame challenges such as poverty or learning English as a second language.”
Trump's Fascist Program, Ctd. Kate Conger, et al., of the New York Times: “The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday opened an investigation into Media Matters, a liberal advocacy organization that has published research on hateful and antisemitic content on X.... The regulator said in a letter sent to the organization that it was investigating the group, which is aligned with Democrats, over whether it illegally colluded with advertisers.... The letter ... required the organization to share copies of its budgets, documents showing the effects of “harmful” online content on advertisers, and communications with other watchdog groups. Elon Musk ... sued Media Matters in 2023 over claims that it tried to damage the social media platform’s relationship with advertisers. That lawsuit continues. As part of its demands, the F.T.C. also asked Media Matters to turn over all the documents it had produced or received from X in that litigation.
“The investigation is the latest example of the Trump administration’s taking actions against individuals and organizations that play critical roles in the infrastructure of the political left. Mr. Trump previously signed executive orders targeting law firms that serve Democrats and other clients who oppose him.... The president has also directed the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, a digital fund-raising platform used by progressive causes and Democratic candidates.” ~~~
~~~ The House Piles On. Andrew Duehren of the New York Times: Donald “Trump already has the weight of the executive branch behind his efforts to strip funding from top universities, deport millions of unauthorized migrants and pressure foreign governments to change their economic policies. With the sprawling bill that passed through the House on Thursday, Republicans are also preparing to enlist the tax code as another tool against Mr. Trump’s political foils. The legislation, which could change as it heads to the Senate, would raise taxes on universities like Harvard, as well as on immigrants and on companies based in countries with taxes that the Trump administration deems unfair. Owners of major sports franchises, a group that Mr. Trump repeatedly tried and failed to join, would also see a tax increase.” Duehren adds a few specifics.
Aaron Davis & Jonathan Baran of the Washington Post analyze video and photos of the confrontation among federal officers and Democratic lawmakers at Delaney Hall, a federal detention center in New Jersey. In court documents made public Tuesday, the Justice Department alleged that amid the ensuing scrum on May 9, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-New Jersey) struck one federal agent with a forearm, 'slammed' her arm into another and 'reached out and tried to restrain' the arresting officer.... The Post’s review confirms McIver made contact with at least two agents while in the turbulent scrum during that time, but it is difficult to discern the force of the contact and to what extent it was intentional or the result of the chaotic moment.... On Tuesday ... Donald Trump dismissed a question about whether the arrest signaled a weaponization of the Justice Department, saying: 'Oh, give me a break. Did you see her? She was out of control,' he said. 'Those days are over, the days of woke are over.'...
“Speaking about the events outside the Delaney Hall detention facility, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem last week testified to Congress that a 'mob of protesters including three members of Congress stormed the gate and they trespassed into the detention facility.' Her department published a news release claiming the lawmakers used an arriving 'bus of detainees' as a decoy to gain entrance, then 'holed up in a guard shack.' A department spokeswoman said lawmakers attacked officers, including 'body slamming a female ICE officer.' The videos examined by The Post did not support those descriptions of the events, and the government did not include them in its charges against McIver.” MB: IOW, even Bondi's DOJ conceded Noem is an irresponsible liar. ~~~
~~~ Joyce Vance of Civil Discourse: "Even if the case were to go to trial, it’s hard to imagine a unanimous jury verdict [against Rep. McIver] on these facts. But this sort of prosecution by the federal government achieves an entirely different goal, one reminiscent of the charges against Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan. This is how autocrats ... chill dissent. It’s another step on the path toward autocracy." Before Vance goes into the case re: McIver, she points out that the person who charged McIver -- Alina Habba -- is lying about what job she herself holds.
⭐Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s wide-reaching effort to detain and deport international students, barring the federal government from arresting those students or revoking their visas while the case plays out in court. Judge Jeffrey S. White of the Northern District of California, who was appointed to the court by President George W. Bush, granted a temporary injunction protecting international students who were among the thousands whose visas were revoked earlier this year without clear justification, writing that government officials had 'uniformly wreaked havoc' and 'likely exceeded their authority and acted arbitrarily and capriciously' by the mass revocation of students’ immigration status...., Judge White wrote in the 21-page order.... Judge White’s ruling said that the order applied to all 'similarly situated individuals' who participate in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which is the system governing student visas. In the order, he expressed suspicion that the Trump administration was trying to place future visa 'terminations beyond judicial review.'... The order comes hours after the Trump administration halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, and it is likely that this nationwide order could at least in part prevent the Trump administration’s move from being enforced.” The NBC News story is here.
Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: “A judge handed workers across a broad swath of the federal government a reprieve on Thursday night, extending her pause on ... [Donald] Trump’s plans for vast layoffs until a case challenging them is resolved. The order, issued by Judge Susan Illston of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, affects tens of thousands of employees at 22 agencies, including the departments of Housing and Urban Development, State, Treasury and Veterans Affairs. She also ordered the administration not to shut down offices and programs in those agencies, or move them between agencies, as Trump officials have sometimes done in their efforts to dismantle parts of the government.... Judge Illston said Mr. Trump was not following the laws set by Congress to address such reductions.... The administration has already asked the Supreme Court to block the two-week pause that Judge Illston initially issued this month. The court has yet to rule on the emergency application, and the government is expected to request that the justices overturn Judge Illston’s new ruling as well.”
Michael Bender of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Thursday blocked ... [Donald] Trump’s executive order aimed at dismantling the Education Department and ordered officials to reinstate thousands of fired employees in a ruling that marked at least a temporary setback for the president and his plans. The decision from Judge Myong J. Joun of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts was a preliminary injunction.... The injunction was requested by a pair of school districts in Massachusetts, the American Federation of Teachers and 21 Democratic state attorneys general who sued Mr. Trump in March to block his executive order and reverse a massive round of layoffs. Judge Joun agreed with their argument that the actions equated to an illegal shutdown of the agency, which only Congress can abolish. 'The record abundantly reveals that defendants’ true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute,' Judge Joun wrote in his order.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Supremes: He Has an Article II Where He Has a Right to Do Whatever He Wants. Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: “A divided Supreme Court on Thursday refused to immediately reinstate a pair of independent regulators fired by the Trump administration, saying the president may have the power to summarily oust the board members and calling into question a 90-year-old legal precedent that has protected the independence of key regulatory bodies. The court’s unsigned order, which drew a sharp dissent from the three liberal justices, did not decide the underlying merits of the case, which will continue to play out in the lower courts. But it was a strong endorsement of presidential authority at a time when ... Donald Trump is trying to seize greater control of the federal bureaucracy. 'Because the Constitution vests the executive power in the President,' the conservative majority said, 'he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject to narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents.'”The NBC News report is here. ~~~
~~~ Kate Riga of TPM: "The Supreme Court majority all but declared Thursday that it is ready to overturn a nearly century-old precedent meant to protect independent agencies from at-will firing by the President. It’s the last brick to fall in the division between the President and the parts of the executive branch Congress created to be beyond his reach.... Coupled with the Trump administration’s annihilation of the civil service, the executive branch will become something much closer to a fiefdom, an extension of presidential power with few institutional guardrails. This was a guiding light of Project 2025.... Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the three dissenting liberals, dispensed with the usual niceties to upbraid her conservative colleagues for bending to President Trump’s whims, and doing so in a two-page ruling on the emergency docket." Read on; Kagan exposes the majority not just for its subservience to Trump but also for its lack of logic. The article includes the ruling and Kagan's dissent." ~~~
~~~ Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy, elaborates on Riga's thesis.
Lauren Weber, et al., of the Washington Post: “The White House blamed exposure to environmental toxins, poor nutrition and increased screen time for a decline in Americans’ life expectancy Thursday, in a major administration report that also casts doubt on the current vaccine schedule and medications deemed safe by mainstream medicine. 'The MAHA Report: Making Our Children Healthy Again,' written by Cabinet officials and administration scientific leaders in response to an executive order from ... Donald Trump, declared that 'today’s children are the sickest generation in American history in terms of chronic disease.'... Some of the report’s suggestions ... stretched the limits of science, medical experts said. Several sections of the report offer misleading representations of findings in scientific papers.... Gun violence, the leading cause of death for children and teens in 2020 and 2021 according to the CDC, is not mentioned in the report. Many of the points in the environmental exposures, overmedicalization and corporate capture sections similarly overstate or misstate scientific findings. Scientific experts have similarly criticized the ways [HHS Secretary Robert] Kennedy discusses scientific studies. Here are five issues addressed in the report[.]”
Will Steakin of ABC News: "The newly sworn-in head of the Social Security Administration told agency staff this week that when he was first offered the job in the Trump administration, he wasn't familiar with the position and had to look it up online. Frank Bisignano, a former Wall Street executive, said during a town hall with Social Security managers from around the country on Wednesday that he wasn't seeking a position in the Trump administration when he received a call about leading the SSA.... While Bisignano, who previously served as chairman and CEO of financial technology company Fiserv Inc., brings experience managing large organizations and overseeing complex payment systems to his new role, he has no prior history working in government or with the Social Security system."
Fatima Hussein & Alan Suderman of the AP: “The U.S. Mint has made its final order of penny blanks and plans to stop producing the coin when those run out, a Treasury Department official confirmed Thursday. This move comes as the cost of making pennies has increased markedly, by upward of 20% in 2024, according to the Treasury. By stopping the penny’s production, the Treasury expects an immediate annual savings of $56 million in reduced material costs, according to the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the news. In February..., Donald Trump announced that he had ordered his administration to cease production of the 1-cent coin.... Jay Zagorsky [of] Boston University said that while he supports the move to end penny production, Congress must include language in any proposed legislation to require rounding up in pricing, which will eliminate the demand for pennies.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here.
Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: “The Senate voted Thursday to block California from enforcing a rule that would ban sales of new gasoline-powered cars in the state by 2035, a move that could have far-reaching implications for auto sales in a dozen states. The vote marks Republicans’ latest effort to curtail state-level efforts to tackle climate change, even as ... Donald Trump and congressional leaders have empowered states to set their own education policies and abortion laws.... The House already passed the [auto] resolution, which now heads to Trump, who has indicated he will sign the measure into law.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Risky Business. Colby Smith & Joe Rennison of the New York Times: “The market for U.S. government bonds, the bedrock of the global financial system, continued to shudder on Thursday, as ... [Donald] Trump’s bill to extend expensive tax cuts and create new ones without significantly slashing spending passed through the House of Representatives. The bill has unnerved investors, deepening worries that the country’s debt is becoming unmanageable. Yields on U.S. bonds, which underpin consumer and business interest rates around the world, from mortgages to corporate loans, have been rising in recent weeks. Yields rise as prices fall, and the higher the yields, the more risk investors perceive in to lending to the government.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: So after Trump imposed irresponsible tariffs, he strongarmed House Republicans into passing an irresponsible budget bill (which, admittedly, they always do), thus proving Trump is bad for business in nearly every way a country's "leader" can be bad for business. But I expect businesspeople will get over reality soon and go back to believing that the anti-regulatory party is their friend.
Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “A divided Supreme Court rejected a plan on Thursday to allow Oklahoma to use government money to run the nation’s first religious charter school, which would teach a curriculum infused by Catholic doctrine. The court split 4 to 4 over the Oklahoma plan, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself from the case, and the decision provided no reasoning. That deadlock means that an earlier ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court will be allowed to stand. The state court blocked a proposal for the Oklahoma school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which was to be operated by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, and aimed to incorporate Catholic teachings into every aspect of its activities. Because there was no majority in the case, the court’s decision sets no nationwide precedent on the larger question of whether the First Amendment permits states to sponsor and finance religious charter schools, which are public schools with substantial autonomy.... Legal experts speculated that the 4-to-4 tie likely resulted from the chief justice joining Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.” Thanks to Ken W. for the heads-up. (Also linked yesterday.)
Julie Bosman of the New York Times: “Elias Rodriguez, a Chicago resident, was charged on Thursday with first-degree murder and other crimes in the killings of two Israeli Embassy aides outside a Jewish museum in Washington. By some accounts, Mr. Rodriguez, 31, led a life typical of a college-educated young professional in Chicago, residing in an apartment in a middle-class North Side neighborhood, with friends and family nearby. But he was also increasingly active in left-wing politics, posting on social media and joining demonstrations in Chicago in opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza, large corporations and racism. When Mr. Rodriguez was taken into custody after the shooting on Wednesday night, he told police officers, 'I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,' according to an F.B.I. affidavit filed in federal court.”
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